Non-Typical info

[cascademossy]

I am another hunter that got to experience a drop camp with NTO this last fall of '09. I friend of mine turned me on to NTO after experiencing a grand time in Region G in Wyoming. His pictures and his talk of the hunt, told me that this was the hunt that I wanted to experience before I got too old to be able to hike around the steep hill and terrain. I told my hunting buds of this and they all said check into it and see what the details were. At first, 4 of us were interested, and Robb discouraged that due to that may be too many for a drop camp area. We totally understood. One guys decide that this wasn't for him, and 3 of us pursued the trip. We felt the cost was reasonable and called Robb and Brenda and said that we were interested and sent them a deposit to hold our spot when the tags were drawn. Being out of state, we purchased a point the first year and the second year we were drawn and totally excited. This was becoming our dream hunt. All summer long, Robb sent us scouting pictures of the bucks that we would hope to be seeing. During this time, Robb was a tough fellow to contact due to him being out scouting, so Brenda would contact us, although sometimes not very promptly. When it came down to crunch time and multiple e-mails and voicemails sent, we were having problems getting ahold of Robb and Brenda to answer some concerning questions , before we left. Mostly it was over the packing weight that we were allow per person. 100 lbs. Upon arrival in Alpine we went right to Brenda to talk with her about the 100 lb limit. She told us to plan on that much weight but you may be able to pack in more per the packers. Water was an issue due to we would be in a dry camp. Upon loading up ther horses we found that the 100 lb limit was somewhat waived and we took more gear and all the water we could pack, plus some. What a great time horsback riding in. The packers were great and understood we were city slickers, and had no problems. We arrived at our camp at 10,200 ft and proceeded to help unload all the gear, we helped set up the tent, the rainfly, and I even did the dreaded wood stove. They appreciated our help and thank us for it, for we had heard about their long days and short nites , all summer long, with hardly nuch time off. One of the packers, Kyle showed us to a spot where some nice bucks were spotted were seen during the summer. It was obvious that we were in mule deer heaven and that the altitude was already effecting us all. During the first few days, we spent scouting and glassing all the canyons and basins that incorperated our area. One of my buddies took a nice 3x3 near camp, one of the packers showed up , with more water, and took the deer out. He said he would be back on thurs with more water. Did not see too many hunters. Just a couple and a guy on a horse that had been in the mountains for two weeks. He was a real man. The 3rd day in I found a basin that had about 15 resident bucks in it, none of them the "booner" but just enough to keep us coming back. On the 4th day just at sunset, the big boy stuck his head out just enough to see that he was , what I would call a 30". Now this is what we came for. we tried to pattern him but to no avail. The weather was great, almost too great. sunny 60 low of 40. The 2nd to last day we determined that we were not going to eat our tags and the plan was to take 2 of the biggest bucks available. The next morning we showed up in the basin and there he was , the big one! It was too dark to get a shot off so we chased him down the ridge and I ended up taking a nice 4x4 and my friend took another nice 3x3. Our communication to Rob, during the summer, was to accomdate our work schedules and take us in on a saturday and pack us out on a saturday. They said that would be fine. The contract we signed was for to be in on a sat. and out on......SUNDAY which nobody noticed. Were sitting on our coolers with the camp totally broken down, awaitng the packers. I attempted to call home and found a voicemail from earlier in the week from Brenda enquiring about how things were going and that the plan was still on to come and get us on sunday. we rented a satellite phone, for emergencies and we attempted to call and no answer. We had very little water. 16 oz. per guy for a day and a half. This was a little disappointing. We made it through and were ready to go the next morning. Mike and Kyle showed up , on time, and we all helped break camp down and get off the mountain.
All in all, sure we had some communication gaps, and sure we almost ran out of water , and sure we ended up staying a day longer(in heaven) and no , our tent stove worked great, and our general feelings were that this area wasn't scouted very well.
But you know what, I would do it all over again. We had a great time and I would recommend NTO to anybody. We all came home with bucks and had a great time doing it. Overall the good outweighed the bad by far.
Cascademossy